Chapter 164

Chapter 164

Briel was sitting halfway up one of the rocky mountains surrounding the Mana Stone Mine.

From here, the inside of the city was brightly visible.

The voices of people staggering beneath the brilliant lights reached even this place.

People enjoyed the day madly, as if tomorrow did not exist.

The intense scent of desire drifting all the way here made Briel’s mind grow hazy.

She had grown used to it now, so it did not bother her, but when she had first been kidnapped into the human world, she had thought she would go mad.

“Haa!”

Just as she let out a sigh, it happened.

“The ground is going to cave in, kid.”

Levin’s voice came from behind her.

When Briel looked back, Levin straightened his back while catching his breath.

That was because he had been running all over the Mana Stone Mine looking for Briel.

“How did you even find this place?”

“Why did you come?”

“Then should I have just left a kid alone after she ran out?”

“I can protect myself perfectly well.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

“We’re family. Family protects each other.”

“Family?”

At the unexpected word, Briel’s eyes trembled.

Although they lived together, she had never once thought of it that way. That was because she had believed her family consisted only of the High Elves.

“We live in the same house, see each other every day, and take care of each other. If that isn’t family, then what is?”

“Fa......mily.”

It was a word with a deep resonance.

Briel closed her eyes and repeated the word family several times.

Levin silently watched her.

The wind blew.

He did not know what realization she had gained, but Briel stood with a refreshed expression.

“All right. Let’s go now.”

“Huh?”

“I said, let’s go.”

“Mm!”

Briel smiled softly and walked.

‘There’s no reason for me to choose right now. Right now, this place is my home, and these people are my family. I just need to be faithful to the present.’

Briel liked Zeon.

At first, they had been tied together by a covenant, but as time passed, she had come to like Zeon.

It was not romantic affection.

She had fallen for the human charm possessed by a person named Zeon.

They might part someday, but at least that day was not now.

She did not want to waste the present because of a future that had not yet arrived.

The rocky mountain was very steep and rugged.

She had not noticed while climbing up, but as she tried to descend, the steep slope felt real.

Levin carefully moved his feet and muttered,

“So they mine Mana Stones inside this rocky mountain?”

“How does a rocky mountain stand alone like this in the middle of the desert?”

“Were there no mountains like this where you originally lived?”

“None at all! Everything I could see was sand. The land where elves could live was only a tiny part of it.”

“That must have been hard.”

“When I was there, I didn’t even think it was hard. Everyone had adapted to living in the sand. But if you told me to go back to that time now, I don’t think I could.”

“Why?”

“I’ve gotten used to the city. I can’t even imagine living without electricity.”

“Puhaha!”

Because Briel’s answer was unexpected, Levin burst into laughter.

“Why?”

“No, it’s because I agree.”

“Right? I don’t know how we lived without electricity. If I could, I’d like to teach my homeland how to extract electricity from Mana Stones.”

“That’ll happen someday.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah! Someday, when the hatred between each side fades a little, won’t there be exchanges? Then we’ll be able to teach them how to make electricity from Mana Stones.”

“Wow! Levin, you sounded kind of like an adult just now.”

“Ugh! Of course I’m more of an adult than you, kid.”

Levin pretended to rap Briel on the head. Briel shrank her neck and stuck out her tongue at him.

‘Still, I’m glad she seems to feel better.’

Levin smiled and looked around.

At that moment, one man entered Levin’s eyes.

He was a man in his mid-to-late twenties wearing shabby clothes.

At a glance, he looked like an ordinary miner.

In fact, he was wearing clothes miners wore, along with boots that came up to his knees.

It was not strange.

This was the Mana Stone Mine, and it was only natural for miners to live here.

It was only natural to see a miner.

And yet Levin felt a strange sense of dissonance from the miner.

‘What is it?’

Levin stared intently at the miner.

He was trying to figure out why he felt this dissonance.

Perhaps it was strange that he had stopped speaking and was staring at an unrelated man, because Briel blinked.

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh, well......”

At that moment, the miner vanished among the people.

Levin tried to find the miner within the crowd, but it was no use.

“Did I lose him?”

“Why? What is it?”

“It just felt strange.”

“What did?”

“His clothes were those of a miner, but the way he carried himself didn’t feel like one.”

Only then did Levin realize the true nature of the dissonance he had felt.

Generally, people with a certain occupation carried an atmosphere suited to that occupation.

A beggar naturally carried a gloomy and cynical atmosphere, and someone who did hard labor naturally gave off an exhausted air.

But the miner Levin had just seen had not felt like a miner at all.

There were no traces of hard labor on him, and his clothes were too clean.

Also, for an ordinary miner, his face had been full of curiosity. As if he had come here for the first time.

‘Who was he?’

It might have been nothing, but it strangely bothered him.

Levin recalled the man’s face.

---

“Whew! What was with that kid? Did he notice something?”

A man dressed as a miner was patting his chest in a back alley.

“I must be getting rusty. I almost got caught by a kid.”

“What do you mean? Almost got caught?”

A detached voice suddenly came from behind the man.

“Gah! You scared me.”

The man jumped and turned around. Standing right before his nose was a woman covered in a robe.

She had approached without him noticing.

If the woman had been an enemy, he would already have been dead.

The man pointed at her and shouted,

“Fuck! How many times have I told you to make some kind of presence when you walk around?”

“If an assassin makes noise, she loses her qualifications.”

“Am I your assassination target? I’m a comrade. A comrade!”

“So you were discovered?”

“No! I wasn’t discovered. It just bothered me because some kid kept looking at me.”

“Is that true?”

“You don’t trust me? I’m Aslan. Aslan, the master of infiltration.”

“A master of infiltration got caught on a kid’s radar?”

“I told you I didn’t get caught.”

In the end, the man, Aslan, shouted in frustration. Even so, the woman with the robe pulled low over her head did not care and only said what she wanted to say.

“So, the information?”

“Yeah! I gathered all of it.”

“Then let’s leave.”

“Can’t we stay a little longer? There’s so much to enjoy here, so why are you trying to leave already?”

“The longer we stay, the higher the chance we’ll be discovered. Didn’t you say some kid already noticed you?”

“I told you I wasn’t discovered.”

“Let’s go!”

“Fuck! Listen to me. I said, let’s have some fun before we leave.”

“If you insist on staying, I will leave alone.”

“Hey! Then how am I supposed to get out?”

“That is not my concern.”

“Ah, you heartless bitch. Fine, let’s go. Let’s go!”

In the end, Aslan surrendered. Then the woman lightly picked Aslan up and said,

“We’re going. Hold on tight.”

“Hehe! I’m holding tight.”

Aslan grinned loosely and hugged the woman tightly. The soft sensation against his face and arms settled the anger that had been rising.

The woman’s body hidden beneath the robe was extremely voluptuous.

That was why Aslan was not angry despite being carried like a princess, something that could have been humiliating for a man.

The body of the woman holding Aslan turned transparent.

It was one of the woman’s awakened abilities.

Invisibility.

Though only for a short time, it was an ability that made herself and objects in contact with her transparent, removing them from sight.

Using her invisibility ability, the woman slipped through the crowded streets in an instant.

When she arrived before the wall, she threw a rope.

The rope stretched out like a whip and wrapped around a pillar on top of the wall.

The woman pulled on the rope and launched herself onto the wall.

Awakened were standing guard on the wall, but none of them noticed the woman’s appearance.

This too was one of the woman’s awakened abilities.

After perfectly deceiving the eyes of the Awakened, the woman descended toward the desert.

In that way, she disappeared into the darkness of the desert in an instant.

---

Levin and Briel returned to the lodging.

Mandy had already gone into her room to sleep, and Zeon was alone in the living room.

Looking at Briel’s face, Zeon said,

“We have a long way to go tomorrow, so go in and sleep.”

“Mm! I will. You should go in too, Zeon.”

“Yeah!”

“Good night!”

Briel entered her room with a bright expression.

Zeon said the same to Levin.

“You worked hard. You go in and rest too.”

“Brother, but......”

“What is it?”

“I saw someone strange earlier.”

“Mm?”

“Actually......”

Levin told him about the miner he had seen earlier.

“That is certainly strange.”

“Right? My eyes weren’t wrong, were they?”

“The miners at the Mana Stone Mine never wander outside when this many people have arrived.”

At the Mana Stone Mine, miners were worked harshly.

Day or night, as long as they had stamina, they were thrown into the shafts.

The miners, exhausted by heavy labor, were busy resting once they came outside.

They especially did not come outside when so many Awakened had entered. That was because if they got into a conflict with an Awakened for no reason, they would be the ones to suffer.

“Then what was he? He was definitely dressed like a miner.”

“Who knows.”

“Ah! I don’t know. I’m going in to sleep.”

“Go on.”

Once even Levin entered his room, Zeon was left alone.

Zeon recalled what Levin had said.

“A miner who doesn’t suit the Mana Stone Mine......”

If someone else had said it, he would not have paid much attention. But because it was Levin who said it, it bothered him more.

Levin was not an ordinary boy.

The experience, eye for detail, and memory he had built while chasing the murderer who killed his family were extraordinary.

If such a Levin had felt something strange, there had to be a reason.

“It seems this dungeon clearing trip will not be easy.”

There were nearly four hundred Awakened mobilized, and more than thirty vehicles.

It was truly an enormous expedition.

Logically, one would think no one would dare attack when this many people were moving, but Zeon knew well that things that defied common sense often happened in the world.

The distance from the Mana Stone Mine to the dungeon they would excavate was over three hundred kilometers.

One might think that distance could be covered in a few days, but the harsh environment of the desert did not let things go so easily.

The environment that tormented people was not made up only of the sun, sand, and monsters.

Humans were one of its elements as well.

“In truth, humans are the most frightening.”

He had lived in the desert for a full eight years, but what had tormented Zeon most had not been monsters, but humans.